Every summer, people across America gather at sun-drenched barbecues to tuck into juicy beef burgers smothered in Wisconsin cheddar cheese, followed by apple pie and peach cobbler.
The more ambitious will be fueling up for the Fourth of July road race with Wheat Ease and freshly squeezed Florida orange juice.
Every item on the American menu has one thing in common.
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None of them are made from foods native to the United States, or even to the Western Hemisphere.
Beef, cheese, apples, peaches, oranges, and even wheat are some of the hundreds of foods that are common and iconic in America, yet unfamiliar to people stateside.
The cheeseburger is an iconic American food, but neither beef nor dairy cows are native to the Western Hemisphere; they were brought there by European explorers starting with the voyages of Christopher Columbus. (Kelly J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Let’s give credit to a man who is reviled by scholars today: Christopher Columbus.
The Genoese explorers who sailed under the Spanish Crown were held in much higher esteem by an earlier, more enlightened generation.
“The traditional foods of billions of people are the silent record of a process that began with Columbus.”
Columbus influenced the integration of world cultures more profoundly than anyone before or since, and he did it all with a sextant, not a social media hashtag touting his dedication to diversity.
“The seemingly traditional foods of billions of living people are the silent records of the process that Columbus began,” food historian Raymond Sokoloff writes in Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed the World’s Diet.
Depiction of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492. Chromolithograph by Louis Prang & Co. (Getty Images)
The Columbus Exchange, as is well known, went both ways.
Roman Emperor Julius Caesar never had tomato sauce, Ireland’s patron saint St. Patrick never peeled a potato, and France’s heroine Joan of Arc never tried a chocolate soufflé.
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Tomatoes, potatoes, and chocolate all originated in the New World.
Conversely, many of the foods we cherish today as uniquely American have origins all over the world, which is surprising.
There are 10 here.
1. Apple
Apple pie is the standard by which all things American are measured, and Johnny Appleseed is a cherished symbol of American bounty.
Apples are considered a barometer of Americana, but they are native to Central Asia. The first apple orchard in the United States was planted in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1630s by early settler William Braxton. (iStock)
But apples are native to Central Asia, and the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving in 1621 without apple pie.
The first apple trees were planted ten years later by Boston’s first settler, William Braxton.
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Roxbury Russet, likely derived from Braxton’s original orchard, is named after the Boston neighborhood and is currently the oldest known variety in America.
2, 3, 4. Butter, cheese, milk
Imagine a land of milk and honey where neither exists.
That was pre-Columbian America: no charming metaphors to tell your loved ones about, no way to tease the greasy-fingered player who dropped the ball.
“(Before European exploration) there was no dairy, no milk, no cream, no butter, no cheese.”
You can’t celebrate a win at the Brickyard on Memorial Day weekend.
Every year, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 drinks milk provided by Indiana dairy farmers and sometimes celebrates by pouring the milk over himself.
Marcus Ericsson of Sweden celebrates his victory by pouring milk over his head in victory lane after winning the 106th Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 29, 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Sokolov writes that before European exploration, “dairy products – milk, cream, butter and cheese – did not exist.”
Dairy cows and livestock were first introduced by European explorers, and honeybees were also imported from the Old World.
5, 6, 7. Bacon, barbecue, burger
Sizzling bacon, smoky pork, beef brisket and a cheeseburger coated in cheddar make for a divine combination of all-American goodness.
But pork and beef were both imported around the world via the transatlantic trade, so yes, New York sirloin, Texas beef ribs, and Carolina pulled pork are culturally appropriated.
Huge, smoky barbecued beef ribs at Pecan Lodge in Dallas, Texas. Meat livestock are not native to the Americas. Cattle, and red meat, were brought there by European explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries. (Kelly J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“Red meat from livestock [was] It was unknown in Mexico until the Spanish introduced it….Before 1492, Mexican cuisine did not include dishes made with beef, pork or lamb.”
Livestock flourished and spread across what is now the United States.
They gave us cattle herds, cowboys, and John Wayne westerns.
8. Orange
America boasts the Orange State, the Orange Bowl, and several Orange Counties.
But oranges did not exist before Columbus.
An icon of California and Florida, this bright citrus fruit is native to Southeast Asia.
Oranges are the leading cash crop in California and Florida, but they are not native to the Western Hemisphere; they were introduced there during the explorations of Christopher Columbus. (Photo by iStock via contributor CactuSoup)
The fruit was delivered to the New World by Columbus himself on his subsequent voyage in 1493.
“Soon after, the Spanish introduced citrus fruits to Florida,” reports the Florida Historical Resources Department. “Florida Native Americans obtained seeds from Spanish missionaries and established cultivation of the fruit.”
9. Peach
Atlanta would be a maze of nameless streets today, Georgia would be better known as the land of second-rate fiddle-playing devils, and “Reunited” would have been Herb’s 1970s solo hit without Columbus.
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Peaches are native to China but were introduced to America.
Thomas Jefferson noticed the pink color of peaches and grew dozens of varieties at his hilltop farm, Monticello, in Virginia.
Peaches grow in an orchard in Reynolds, Georgia, on Friday, July 8, 2022. Despite being widely associated with the state, peaches are no longer Georgia’s largest fruit crop. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Peaches were introduced in 1565 by Spanish colonists in St. Augustine, Florida, and then by the French to the isolated Gulf of Mexico. Mexican Settlement in 1562,” the Monticello website reports.
“It was probably cultivated in Mexico at a much earlier date.”
10. Wheat (and the Breakfast of Champions)
Nicknamed the “Breakfast of Champions,” Wheaties has provided a forum to celebrate great American athletes for nearly a century (its most recent entrant being tennis legend Billie Jean King).
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General Mills cereal and the amber, wavy grains used to make it happen to be iconic American cuisine.
According to the General Mills website, Wheaties was discovered in 1921 “as a result of a wheat bran mixture accidentally spilled onto a hot stove.”
Tennis legend Billie Jean King, 39-time Grand Slam champion and advocate for equal rights, will have her image featured on a limited-edition Wheaties box dubbed “Breakfast of Champions” starting in May 2024. (General Mills via The Associated Press)
Wheat was a staple in the Spanish diet.
It thrived in the Americas, first originating in Mexico and spreading northward.
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Grain was “planted wherever the conquerors established farms,” Sokolov writes.
“By 1535, Mexico was exporting wheat to the Antilles.”
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